Canon scanners and Mac’s OS 10.5 aren’t really friends.

Well, Canon doesn’t like 10.5 at any rate.

The problem seems to run around in circles with the Canoscan software (available here).

Fine, you download the driver for your scanner (in my case, a LIDE25), and then the Canoscan software, but then we get into this tailspin whenever you want to scan something…

Cannot find driver

That’s the message. Then sometimes it’ll scan… and then again not.

But the solution is to install the Canon scanner driver (again, the LIDE25 is available — through a slightly tortuous route here) and not to bother with the CanoScan software at all.

You use Mac’s built-in Image Capture application.

I’ve wondered what the hell this is for since I got into macs back-in-the-day… I think I started with 10.3 back in 2004.

Anyway, I would open the application and it’d say “Nope, nothing to do here” and then sit there tapping it’s electronic foot. I’d just turn it off and go and do something else.

However, it works with scanners. Probably what it’s meant for in the first place.

The proof was found today at my friend G’s place; she had a HP multifunction monstrosity (deskjet 9100 from memory), and it was simply impossible to:

(a) find drivers for Mac 10.5

(b) get them to download

I gave up. I’m never buying a HP peripheral as long as I live (but I said that about Optus and going on their telephone network a few years ago, and now am a proud owner of an iPhone on the Optus network. Never say never…)

Anyway, the HP scanner was a no-go. So I went the Canon route, and after having the irritation of the above-mentioned error message, did some more research, and found the solution already mentioned.

The funny thing is that Image Capture gives you far more control over the scanned image and resulting output than the Canoscan software.

Go figure.